Kyrgios serves up Twitter blast

NICK Kyrgios and Fernando Verdasco have been involved in a Twitter spat after the veteran Spaniard’s victory over Thanasi Kokkinakis at the Miami Open.

Verdasco overcame Kokkinakis 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) in a tense third-round tussle that included a heated exchange between the pair about the conduct of the Australian qualifier’s father during the match.

During the almost threehour showdown Kyrgios tweeted: “I hope TK wins this match, Verdasco is the saltiest dude, must be frustrated at his past success against Aussies.”

The tweet was deleted after Kokkinakis, who won a tiebreaker to knock Swiss world No. 1 and defending champion Roger Federer out of the Masters 1000 event in the second round, was unable to get over the line against Verdasco. The 34-year-old then responded to Kyrgios on Twitter: “@NickKyrgios when you have the courage to put a tweet insulting another player you need to have the same to don’t delete it.”

Midway through the third set of the round-of-32 clash, Kokkinakis took exception to the 31st seed disrupting him during his service motion and complained to the chair umpire at the change of ends.

Verdasco countered that a person behind him in the crowd, who he thought was Kokkinakis’s coach, was constantly talking. When Kokkinakis identified that it was his father who Verdasco was referring to, he replied: “That is affecting me. That’s my f---ing dad.”